Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the hand-painted billboard had changed to something peculiar. It looked, to me, as though some renegade sign-painter took vengeance on the increased number of billboards in this area.

However, a comment by Lorelei, left on the site, identified the new poster as one by artist, Banksy. Indeed this poster appears on his site.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

However it’s now being replaced, and I have a few photos to show the process that’s happened over the past weeks. It’s been raining a lot, so there’ve been whole days of delay.

I first noticed the base white primer painted over most of the rat image.
This was toward the end of the first day.

This crane was planted at the street level beneath the sign.
The painter would hoist the rented crane up to paint and draw.

A day later, much of the sign has been covered with a reddish brown base
to try to match the colors of the bricks on the ediface.

At first, I thought the paint had been wiped clear from the surface.
A drawing of a female had been started.

On the next day, flesh tones appeared, and the shape
of the white area had been altered.

Friday it rained – no change in the painting
Saturday it rained – no change
Sunday was windy – no change
Monday was sunny – no change
Tuesday things developed, the woman was colored. (image left above)
Wednesday the border was fully painted; snowflakes & type
were added. (image right above)
Note that the white from the original Banksy image is still
spilling off the sign at the bottom.

Four days later, and the sign still isn’t complete, but
it’s getting close. There’s been too much rain and wind,
and I’m sure the painter has had some problems continuing.
You can see where it’s going. When it’s done, I’ll post the final.
Maybe they’ll change the background brown, but I don’t think so.
I’ve never been one to like mixing transparencies with opaques,
though I suppose the half hidden snowflakes help it there.

Amusingly enough, about a block away a sign that was designed
to look like it had been graffiti on the building was erected.
This one is a screen that was hung on the building.

-One of the aspects I love enormously about living in NY is the appreciation of art in our daily lives. It’s everywhere. I enjoy displaying images of some of the sculpture I pass frequently.

I’m not just talking, of course, of the many many recognizable personalities standing in bronze around all our parks and crossings but of many of the other non-representational pieces as well.

“Give My Regards to Broadway” composer, George M. Cohan (think James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy” graces Times Square at Broadway & 46th Street. (This is actually called Duffy Square – a small triangle between 46th & 47th St named for Father Duffy, a noted military chaplain during WW I.) He greets all the visitors to Tin Pan Alley wherein he made his living.

Actually theaters moved to this area after the turn of the 20th Century. Prior to that the theatrical area was downtown some 10 blocks at Herald Square. (Both Squares were named for newspapers – Herald Sq. for the NYHerald, Times Sq. for the NYTimes.)

Regardless, this statue is a staple for all New Yorkers who usually take it for granted. ——————————————-.(Click any image to enlarge.)
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Let’s move downtown to Union Square – 14th Street. The summer art program has deposited three large new sculptures. Dennis Oppenheim’s Tumbling Mirage.

A somewhat dented sign gives us a small bit of information about the large pieces.

From the park at Union Square, you can look over to
the small traffic triangle to see the three pieces.

Crossing the street, you can walk in, through and around them.

Looking uptown you get a more picturesque view of Park Ave.

Moving closer to my studio, there’s a very small children’s playground at Sixth Ave.
and Houston St. Within it is a small, child-sized sculpture of a seal.

I see this piece daily, and I wonder how many others notice it. The stone
is worn down a bit for all the children who’ve touched it and ridden it.
No info seems to be there about the sculptor.

When I started photographing it, rain began to fall.
It made for interesting patterns on the stone.

By the third and last photo, the rain was falling harder, and
the seal took on a different appearance.

- A couple of weeks ago, I noted in a post that a large bank of theatrical lights had been placed in a circle on the Oval Lawn of Madison Square Park. This obviously indicated that a new “Art” piece was in the works. Little did I know that the lights WERE the art piece.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Pulse Park is an interactive light installation that monitors visitors’ heart rates using two heart rate sensor sculptures, and activates two hundred theatrical spotlights, creating a pulsating matrix of light across the central Oval Lawn of the historic park.

According to the Park’s information about the piece:

Pulse Park marks the U.S. public art debut of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. In Pulse Park, evening visitors to Madison Square Park will have their systolic and diastolic heart rates measured by one of two sensor sculptures installed at the North and South ends of the Oval Lawn. These biometric rhythms are translated and projected as pulses of narrow-beam light that will move sequentially down rows of spotlights placed along the perimeter of the lawn as each consecutive participant makes contact with the sensors. The result is a poetic expression of our vital signs, transforming the public space into a fleeting architecture of light and movement.

During the daytime the lights look like this.

At night, the lights come in waves and create glowing patterns on the very bright green grass. Semi silhouetted people flicker about on the grass and move in the strobe light glows. Then it goes dark, and you wait another couple of seconds before the next wave begins. It was quite surreal and very interesting. Here are some stills.

If you look closely, you’ll find some people traipsing about.

I expected to have lights flashing in my eyes, but
that was never a problem.

I went the first non-raining night I could, last Monday, and recorded this short film on my camera to give you an idea of what you see in the dark of the park.

8PM, Monday evening.

There’s a short item in The Gothamist about it.
New York Magazine had another, similar article.

Postnote: My photos were taken last Monday. Two days later half the lights were down, and by Friday they were back. I went by last night at around 7pm, and the piece was dark. I’m not sure when exactly they’re operating.

(Fotos by my friend, Steve Fisher.) …

This is the scariest Halloween of all.
…

– I knew something was planned for Madison Square Park when I passed through it on Thursday.

Lights had been erected in a circle, around the
“Oval Lawn.”

So I took a couple of photographs in anticipation, not knowing what was planned –
an art piece? an Oktoberfest? a concert?

This Saturday, passing through I noticed a flurry of activity with the usual tents being put up. This sign, to the right, revealed what it was for

___________HALLOWEEN !

I mean . . . Fall Fest !

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Lights had been set all around the “Great lawn.”

On Saturday, a couple of tents had been constructed
and planning for the event was in progress.

The smaller lawn became a cemetery filled with pumpkins.

Bushels of hay flanked the cemetery, and the front of the park
was still in development.

But then I went back to the park later that afternoon, and it’s like none of this had existed.
Everything – tents, pumpkins, hay – was gone as if it had never been there.

All that I saw to prove I hadn’t dreamed up these photos was the chit I found, pictured to the right. Apparently, the pumpkins went to the kids.

The only remaining thing was the lighting and the foliage. The squirrels enjoyed the lights; I enjoyed the foliage. Apparently,
those lights must be for some other event up and coming.

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- Sarah Palin made her SNL debut last night. My friend, cartoonist, Tom Hachtman did this cartoon celebrating the rise of Ms. Sarah. It’s one of his first attempts at animation. (and it wasn’t done with Flash!) The drawings were originally assembled to animate by Bill Skurski.

P____ A____ L____ I____ E____ N

- In past postings, I’ve pointed out that I am a fan of hand painted signs that cover the rougher surfaces in the city.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Not all signs, of course, are hand painted. Some small ones (above left)
are stenciled, most are just pasted (above right).

The area of town that I think is becoming the new “42nd St” – meaning there’s an
overwhelming number of posters everywhere you look – is in the Village at Houston St.
& Broadway. The signs in this small are are all of the highest technology.
However, none are hand painted signs.

In this 4 block square area, the closest is this, ads for Adult Swim that are
draped over the surface of a brick wall – ON TOP of windows, I might add.

There are those that have been sitting for years and are slowly disintegrating
in front of our eyes, like this sign on 25th St, across from the Flat Iron building.

I had meant to photograph this poster that is an exact duplicate of
one seen all over the city, especially within the subways.

But some advertising terrorist seems to have arrived, armed with paint of their own.
They covered the hand painted sign with their own paint and did this.

However, I keep wondering if this isn’t something that FOX
has designed to rouse my curiosity for a follow-up ad.
It almost looks too professionally done.

- Last week, I wrote about the start of an art installation in Madison Square Park of some “Treehuts” (though I think of them as “Treehouses.” (See post here.)
The artist is Tadashi Kawamata, and you can see a blog about this work here.

At first, when you enter the park from the main entrance, you don’t notice them, but you’re soon caught up looking into all the trees to see if there’s a construction there. The natural wood makes me wonder what’s going to happend to these “huts” after the weather’s been at them for a while.

The rear entrance to the park on Madison Ave. & 26th Street leads you to this treehouse just behind the statue of Chester K. Arthur. It was a surprise to see it since this wasn’t here last Monday.
You’ll see a closer shot of this treehouse, from another angle, pictured below.

The path, immediately to the left of Chester K. Arthur, leads right to this treehouse. There seems to be a bit more dignity to the structures on this side of the park since there are relatively few of them.

The main entrance (pictured at the top of this post – with a treehouse barely visible over Hans Christian Andersen’s shoulder on the left of the photo) leads to a large number of them, and it gets to be a bit much.

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I tried to get more than one shot of some of these treehouses so that you can see what their environment is like and then get a closer look at how they’ve been built.

When the workers were constructing they had lots of lumber and seemed to have cut it and constructed these things from the ground up (literally, I guess.)

This is looking out on the main entrance (23rd Street & B’way) of the park.

Lots of other people have photographed these “Treehuts.” (I guess they’re popular.) Check out some of these Flickr pieces.

Tadashi Kawamata, the artist, has a number of other installations you can check out on the internet. This one is impressive. As is this one in Versailles.

- While on my usual trek through Madison Sqaure Park, I came upon a new art installation in progress. Tadashi Kawamata is constructing “treehuts” in some of the trees of the park. They’re not finished (I think), nor are they habitable. I took a few photos in and around the rainy days here. You can see a blog about the installation and see some better photos here.

Here’s an artist’s sketch on top of a photo of a tree.

Workers occupy small tents (to protect them from the rain)
while they construct the treehouses from lifts.

I can’t quite tell what the finished products will look like,
but I’ll report back if this is it.

Even in this state, they can be attractive in the wild of the trees.

CBS was obviously interested in the story this day.___________________________
I also appreciated the concrete “treehut” separating two buildings across the street.

Here are some photos from Ottawa:

This is the National Gallery with the Louise Bourgeois spider guarding the lawn.
Inside this building I had my first encounter with children
who were bussed in to see my films & hear me talk.

1 2
1. This is the theater interior waiting for kids to arrive.
2. This is the US Embassy with flowers for the war dead on the gate.
They cleaned up this gate later in the day discarding the flowers.

3 4
3. The By Towne theater wherein many of the programs were projected.
4. Karl Cohen receives a Special ASIFA award. He’s flanked
by Deanna Morse (L) and Marcy Page (R).

5 6
5. (L to R) Glen Ehlers, Chris Boyce, David Levy
6. Amid Amidi (center)

7 8
8. Jason Simonich, Linda Beck, Candy Kugel
9. Ward Jenkins, taking my picture.

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10. The bus going to the picnic left from the By Towne theater.
11. Paul Driessen and Candy Kugel at the picnic.

1213
12 & 13 As in the past, lots of tables were set up for plenty of eating.
This year hamburgers & franks were the meal with some side salads.

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14. The night of the picnic, after a screening of Canadian shorts, a bunch of us went for
dinner to an excellent Thai restaurant that Hélène Tanguay recommended.
Hélène is in pink to the right. That’s Willy Hartland and Derek Roczen in front of her.
Candy Kugel sits just behind me to the left.
15. The carved pumpkins from the picnic were transported to the Saw Bar,
where Friday’s party was to take place.

16
16. Nancy Bieman and Candy Kugel
outside Barrymore’s before Sat nite’s party.

The full list of award winners can be found here on AWN. I don’t agree with much that the judges liked. Sorry. Different strokes for different folks.

- I was pleased and surprised that a couple of reviews for my latest dvds were so enormously positive. I guess I’m like most people, I want people to like my films, but I never quite expect them to get the reception they do.

Consequently, I can’t help but share the following one with you from an on-line magazine called: Digigods

Abel’s Island and The Marzipan Pig are the latest in FRF’s ongoing releases of the films of Michael Sporn. Sporn, for those not in the know, is a wonderful animator, a man of delicate and painterly inclinations whose work almost seems more like storybooks brought to life than conventional
animation. These two stories, based on popular children’s books, are both excellent and delightful to watch. Forget about the junk you see on store shelves in the annoying white plastic cases — this is what you ought to plop your kids in front of… and then stick around to enjoy with them. “The Marzipan Pig” is a particular delight, wonderfully narrated by Tim Curry and also featuring the Ruby Dee-narrated “Jazztime Tale,” a story of two girls, one white and the other black, who form a friendship in 1919 Harlem. Curry also does voice work on “Abel’s Island,” which features “The Story of the Dancing Frog” as well. Priceless and wonderful. Avail yourselves of these lovely efforts by Sporn… and then go get the rest of the Sporn titles.

Sorry, I couldn’t help it. I’m proud to have someone who doesn’t know me from Adam and gives such a comment. Oddly enough, that’s not the only one.

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Jeff Scher has a new animated piece on the New York Times, and you should take a look. Dog Days animates a host of panting dogs witnessing the last days of Summer.

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Bob Cowan has been posting some of the great photos and excellent material from the Ingeborg Willy Scrapbook. So far three pages have been posted:
______Pg. 1, Pg. 2, Pg. 3 ________________
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- Apparently, Aaron Sorkin revealed at the San Diego SorCon that he will be unveiling an animated version of The West Wing this coming season.

According to Sorkin, “The costs of live-action production restricted me to a set only slightly larger than the actual White House and an ensemble cast of under 15 actors. But animation technology will enable us to provide fans with extended 40-minute walk-and-talks, digitally compressed dialogue for faster delivery, and a cast of over 70 main characters. My vision will finally be presented in its truest, most uncompromised form.”

You can see the rest of the story in this week’s copy of The Onion.

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- I’ve recently bought a new camera and have been trying to figure it out. Sometimes too much contrast, sometimes too much grain. However, I’ve been shooting a lot to try to get it down. Here are a coupla studio photos among the bunch.

This is what you first see as you enter the stairwell.
You have to walk to the rear of the corridor.

Lola, our current cat, might be looking down on you. She jumps up
on the right wall and cavorts up there with the orange cat that lives there.

Here she is moving from the back to the front.

This is the view from the door as you enter.

(L) Christine’s desk, once you enter and look left.
(R) The table to the kitchen, just behind her desk.

This is the other side of that main room, look back to the editor’s station.

This is my spot. The animation desk came from UPA, the moviola from a Paramount editor.

Two of the walls in my room are covered with books and tapes and dvds.
If Lola weren’t outside, she’d be in on those shelves, too.